Daily Press, Wtkr Close To Content Deal

February 26, 2008|By PETER FROST, pfrost@dailypress.com 247-4744

NEWPORT NEWS — In a move that could end the Daily Press' longstanding content-sharing agreement with WAVY-TV 10, the newspaper said Monday it was close to finalizing a similar agreement with local CBS affiliate WTKR NewsChannel 3.

The deal, which is expected to take effect April 1, was made public Monday in a speech to Daily Press employees by Randy Michaels, Tribune Co.'s CEO of interactive and broadcasting.

In the proposed partnership, WTKR and the newspaper would collaborate on news coverage, some advertising sales and Internet ventures, said Daily Press Publisher Digby Solomon. For example, WTKR's news videos would be available on dailypress.com, and some of the newspaper's stories could be accessed on WTKR's Web site.

"WTKR will be more innovative and be able to help us with more things because, frankly, I think they have more to gain," Solomon said of the station, which ranks third among Hampton Roads local news broadcasts. "WAVY is No. 1, and they just don't need as much."

But Solomon didn't rule out a continuing relationship with WAVY, which has worked with the Daily Press since 1996 and has a news broadcasting desk at the newspaper's main building on Warwick Boulevard.

"I feel that WAVY has been a good partner and a great TV station ... but I feel that (our) relationship has gotten stale," he said. "There's always the potential to keep some sort of limited relationship" with the station.

WAVY General Manager Doug Davis declined to comment about discussions between the newspaper and WTKR, but he said WAVY was in "active discussions about the future of our relationship with the Daily Press."

When asked if he believes the partnership would continue to be mutually beneficial for the news outlets, he said, "That's why we're talking about it."

Talks of a WTKR-Daily Press partnership surfaced soon after the newspaper's parent company, Tribune Co., went private in December in a deal orchestrated by billionaire Chicago real estate mogul Sam Zell.

When that deal closed, Zell plucked Michaels from Local TV LLC, a company that assisted in managing WTKR, to lead Tribune's broadcasting and interactive businesses. Soon after, Tribune and Local TV announced the formation of a joint management company that put WTKR and the Daily Press under the same corporate umbrella.

In his speech Monday, Michaels said if the two outlets can develop a partnership that involves sharing content at a more profitable level, "that's what we ought to do, and that's what we're exploring."

While WTKR is at the bottom of the ratings in Hampton Roads, Michaels said he is confident the station will improve.

The station "was No. 1 in this market forever," he said. "It's a real rebuilding effort."

"It doesn't have to suck, and we're in the process of addressing that," Michaels said.

WTKR News Director Shane Moreland acknowledged the problems with the station's newscasts and said it is in the midst of a sweeping rebuilding process.

He said the station's last owner, The New York Times Co., allowed quality staff to leave and neglected to make upgrades to the news set and other technologies.

"When I got here in 2007, the only place to go was up," Moreland said. "But now we've got a new management team, and if you look at the newscasts from six or eight months ago compared with today, you'll see it's strikingly different and better."

A partnership with the Daily Press, he said, will allow both media outlets to try new and innovative methods of reaching new viewers, readers and Internet users.

"We're really excited about this," he said. "Like us, the people at the Daily Press aren't focused on being traditionalists. We want to get out ahead of some of these new technologies now because if we sit back and wait, we're going to be too late."